The highlight effect

One quick clarification on the post below: I'm not implying that Atherton isn't entitled to an opinion on how Sreesanth should be censured. He certainly does; my objective was to point out the prominence that certain incidents are given, as a function of what cricketing stage they happen to be performing on. There is a large group of English journalists that write on this series and their writings are amplified by Cricinfo linking to every single one of their pieces. The current Surfer blog links to 14 English pieces and 2 Indian pieces - guess which side's feelings on this matter are fast becoming the accepted wisdom on this matter? My motivation for mentioning the Akhtar incidents was that they simply weren't given that much prominence and there wasn't an incessant drum-roll of articles asking for Akhtar's head. As a result, no one is even aware of this. Bu years from now, people will still be talking about the 'infamous shoulder barge' or the 'infamous beamer' at Trent Bridge in the summer of 2007.